Fellside by M.R. Carey #bookreview #TuesdayBookBlog

The unmissable and highly anticipated new literary thriller from the author of the international phenomenon The Girl With All the Gifts.

Fellside is a maximum security prison on the edge of the Yorkshire Moors. It’s not the kind of place you’d want to end up. But it’s where Jess Moulson could be spending the rest of her life.

It’s a place where even the walls whisper.

And one voice belongs to a little boy with a message for Jess.

Will she listen? – Goodreads.com

I read The Girl With All the Gifts and thought it was wonderful – maybe one of the best books I read in 2014. When I saw Fellside, I couldn’t wait to get my hands on it.

What worked for me:

Setting – Being in a women’s prison gives so many potential roads for this book to take and includes gangs, cliques, drama, corrupt authority figures – along with some supernatural happenings.

Mystery – Did Jess really start the fire or didn’t she? If she didn’t, who did?

Characters – Some gritty, downright unlikable and despicable characters provide some dark, disturbing moments in this story. Around the end of the book, Jess does something that came as a shock and upset me, but I understood her reasons after I thought about it.

Ending – Although I’ve seen some reviews where readers were displeased with the ending, I found it to be bittersweet and satisfying, all things considered.

Writing – Superb.

What was more meh:

Pacing – I found my mind wandering every so often. This is a hefty book at nearly 500 pages and seemed to contain some subplots (one in particular) that weren’t very relevant, but I have to say that once I reached the 80% mark, I couldn’t put it down.

Characters – Being a women’s prison, there are a lot of them, not a bad thing, but some aren’t as distinctive and blur together. I also had difficulty connecting with Jess at times.

Expectations – This is all on me. I was expecting more supernatural/horror, but this is more of a thriller with a supernatural twist. Admittedly, this twist is unlike anything I’ve read before.

Although I enjoyed The Girl With All the Gifts more, Fellside tells a dark, multi-layered story that will stick with you for quite a while.

Thanks to NetGalley for a digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.